1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to an identification records system comprising a device for obtaining and recording fingerprint data. More particularly, the invention relates to an improved fingerprint device on which a fingerprint can be imprinted and stored for use on documents to permit the positive identification of persons involved in legal and business transactions.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The use of signatures on documents has been the primary means of identification used in legal and business transactions. This well known system of identification has always been plagued by fraud resulting from forgery and misrepresentation of identities. Since it is often difficult or impossible to identify the perpetrator of such fraud by examination of the forged signature alone, apprehension and prosecution of the perpetrators is difficult and must often rely on evidence other than the actual document.
The use of fingerprints in conjunction with signatures, or in the place of signatures, would alleviate the above problems, deter fraud, and provide a permanent record of the identity of the persons involved in the transaction. The taking of fingerprints, however, has previously been a time consuming and messy task involving inks, or in a few cases, a combination of special chemicals and chemically sensitized paper.
Thus the need exists for a clean and rapid method of taking fingerprints for positive identification, and in particular for the use of such a method in financial, legal and business documents in which positive identification of parties is crucial and fraud is deterred.
Various prior art fingerprint devices and the like, are well known and are found to be exemplary of the U.S. prior art. U.S. Pat. No. 2,500,612 to Krough discloses a device for placing fingerprints on documents. This invention includes the use of powder on the finger before the impression is made on a pad. U.S. Pat. No. 3,467,055 to Yonchar teaches a device for preserving fingerprints on a document, which also includes folded strips and the use of a powdery substance. U.S. Pat. No. 3,664,910 to Hollie discloses a document identification system where a stamp-like patch is adhesively attached to a document. After peeling away from the patch a protective liner which must then be thrown away, a fingerprint is impressed on an exposed tacky surface, and a transparent cover sheet is then laid down and adhered to the tacky surface to preserve the print.
These patents or known prior uses teach and disclose various types of fingerprint devices of various sorts and manufactures as well as methods of their construction; but none of them, whether taken singly or in combination, disclose the specific details of the combination in such a way as to bear upon the claims of the present invention.
The present invention is an improvement over the prior art in that it provides a construction which does not soil the user's hand with any powders or chemicals, and which further does not require the peeling and discarding of a backing sheet such as found in Hollie. In addition, the invention provides for a reflective or mirrored substrate which allows greater clarity and ease of viewing of the fingerprint than is found in the prior art.